Rattle Conducts Sibelius

Simon Rattle has long been an ardent Sibelius advocate. During his long tenure with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra he recorded all seven symphonies, and more recently he has been doing them all again with his present orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic.

The least played and recorded of the seven Sibelius symphonies is the Third. It lacks the sheer cumulative power of the first two symphonies, and the tightly wound complexity of the others. And the last movement seems to end before it really gets going. Nonetheless, it contains some beautiful music. As always, the Berlin Philharmonic players get into the music as if it was the greatest piece ever written and Rattle obviously treasures every bar. As I have often said, these BPO videos are absolutely state of the art and this one is no exception.

Paul E. Robinson